Storytelling is an embodied, playful, and inherently human practice.
Listening to stories helps us access language
Re-telling stories helps us to deepen our understanding of language
Stories contextualize vocabulary and grammar; we see language come alive
Play can create entry points into stories and language
Stories give us ways to nurture students’ literate identities within classrooms
Digital Stories: stories that tell non-fiction or fiction narratives, using personal or found imagery (pictures and video), text, titles, voiceover, music, and other elements to convey a narrative.
Stop Motion: is an animation of physical objects. This is a great way to deconstruct or re-construct big ideas from a narrative you are teaching.
Comics: multimodal form of expression that leverages drawn images, juxtaposition, and text to tell stories, express humor, and convey ideas.
Digital Storytelling Resources
There are a number of platforms you can use to compose stories that blend text, image, video and more. We have curated a few here. Be mindful that if you are using images, audio, or video from other sites, you should be attributing them in the credits and adhering by fair use guidelines. Also - we recommend you login/signup with your student or educator ID to leverage the educator/student benefits and costing.
Storybird: a digital creation tool for children and educators to create stories, comics, picture books, short stories, and chapter books, among others. They also have instructional resources for teachers and students.
Pixton: a digital creation tool for students and educators to create comics.
Adobe Spark: Content creation tools including video making, infographics, cartoons, and more. K12 licenses free.
Canva: Canva is another content creation platform that has good starter templates that you can modify and tweak. You can create slide presentations, story voice, and others here as well.
StoryMaps: StoryMaps makes everyone a storyteller. Share your most important ideas and experiences as compelling interactive content featuring maps, media, and more.
Sora: This is ChatGPT's AI generated video platform. Be mindful of the issues around privacy, rights, and
Digital Storytelling Examples
Check out some sites below that have examples of identity-driven storytelling, which allow for viewers to have immersive experiences.
StoryCenter: This site hosts stories about people's lives that highlight aspects of their identities.
Silence Speaks: This site uses storytelling, creative arts practices, and participatory media to support the telling and witnessing of stories that all too often remain unspoken and unheard.